The Glendale Unified School District enjoys a linguistically and culturally diverse student population. Students in the District come from homes in which over 68 different languages are spoken representing cultures from all around the world. The Welcome Center was created in 1988, and since that time has been a warm and welcoming office aimed at supporting our GUSD families throughout their child's academic career. The Welcome Center offers ongoing personalized parent orientation sessions in Arabic, Armenian, Korean and Spanish for parents new to GUSD. Parent Orientations provide parents with information and resources to help successfully navigate GUSD. 

The Welcome Center administers English language proficiency assessments to all students in grades K-12 who are new to the District and whose Home Language Survey indicates a primary/home language other than English. The State-mandated English Language Proficiency Assessment for California (ELPAC), a reading comprehension assessment and the District Writing Benchmark are administered to help provide school sites with multiple measures of English proficiency and assist school sites in determining the most appropriate language instruction program to ensure students reach proficiency in English as quickly as possible.

English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) 

The ELPAC is based on the State-adopted English Language Development (ELD) Standards and assesses students in the four domains of:  

• Listening
• Speaking
• Reading
• Writing 

To learn more about the ELPAC and access Practice Tests under the Resources Tab, please click here.

All Initial ELPAC Testing begins July 1. Welcome Center staff reach out to families to schedule and confirm Language Assessments while following state and county health and educational officials guidance.

District Writing Benchmark & Math Diagnostic Assessment

The District Writing Benchmark is administered to assess students' English writing proficiency. Secondary students (7-12 grades) are also given math diagnostic assessments to help determine the appropriate math course at the school site. 

Students whose English language assessments indicate that they are limited in English are also assessed in their primary language in order to provide information about their academic knowledge and the degree of their primary language proficiency. GUSD currently has the capability to assess oral language and literacy in the following languages:

• Arabic
• Armenian
• Korean
• Russian
• Spanish

Parent Orientation Meetings

During initial ELPAC administration, the Welcome Center conducts parent orientation sessions for parents/guardians new to the District. The purpose of the new parent orientation is to welcome new families to the District and engage and inform them about the various services, programs and resources available.